


Automatic Protection

by WhyAreYouLaughing



Series: Drabbles From Arcadia Bay [9]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 09:14:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16216016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyAreYouLaughing/pseuds/WhyAreYouLaughing
Summary: Max doesn’t mean to keep rewinding, but she can’t fathom Chloe being dead.





	Automatic Protection

Max goes through with it, Chloe dies.

Then she doesn’t, and the world plays in reverse.

The time traveler had raised her hand without even noticing.

Nathan delivers his threats again, then the dead-not-dead girl responds.

Max flinches before the gun is even triggered.

Tears stream down her face when it is.

Panicked shouts follow.

A stronger person would have just closed their eyes and accepted this fate, but rewinding was practically an instinct to Max by now.

Back.

Back.

Back to before.

The same damn conversation every time.

Max can’t even stop herself from lunging at the fire alarm.

Their reactions mirror the first time exactly.

Nathan isn’t arrested.

Chloe isn’t killed.

Everything is alright.

Except it isn’t, because the town cannot survive if those two things don’t happen.

This reality simply can’t stay, Max knows that and hates it at the same time. 

She reverses time anyways.

Their voices have more depth this time, they mean things that Max shouldn’t even know. Imply feelings that she shouldn’t be aware of.

Both tones are thick with desperation.

Then why does it end the same way no matter what she tries?

Nathan doesn’t want to shoot anybody. Chloe doesn’t want to die.

And it still happens.

It’s not fair.

“STOP!”

Max finds herself yelling without even realizing how she got there.

She’s standing where she first manipulated time.

Nathan swirls around and proceeds to fires his gun at her. Max isn’t sure if it’s intentional or just a reflex.

If she was a bit closer, perhaps her story would have ended with that impulsive move, but she wasn’t.

Nathan shot at her in a panic, with the gun aimed in her general direction rather then her body.

The bullet whizzed past Max’s shoulder and was only stopped by the wall behind her.

It’s enough to startle her into using her powers.

Max remains were she is, while everything else changes. That’s how it works now.

Nobody else but herself is in the bathroom currently, but Nathan will soon barge in, and he won’t like that she’s there.

Like clockwork, the boy shoves the door open then freezes when he sees Max.

“Leave, Caulfield.”

She doesn’t move.

“NOW!”

Max flinched, but also refused.

“No.”

That surprises him; shown by his eyes going wide, followed by him opening his mouth to argue.

Chloe enters before he can.

In the same way that Nathan did, she starts to say something, only to cut herself off when she realizes what the situation is.

“Who are-“ Chloe tries questioning, before something struck her, “Max?”

Max supposes it’s the eyes and freckles that give her away.

It was certainly Chloe’s blue orbs that revealed who she was.

The blue-haired girl’s expression changes from shock to anger, and Max knows what to expect before she even announces it.

“Get out, Max.”

It still hurts.

“Chloe, I can-“

She tries to defend herself, but it’s no use.

“This isn’t your business, Caulfield.” Nathan steps in; him and Chloe have the same goal to drive her away, “It’s time to go.”

It is, just not in the way that Nathan thinks.

Max understands.

“Sorry, guys.”

And her hand is stretched out, grasping at the strings of time.

She walks backwards into the corner, hidden from view once again.

No need to repeat that outcome.

A wild idea comes to her, and Max finds herself with the hammer from the fire alarm clutched in her hands.

Nathan’s already rambling at the sink.

Maxine Caulfield isn’t a particularly strong person, in fact she would rate rather low on any kind of strength scale.

But that doesn’t factor in that she’s desperate, and desperate people do desperate things.

In a stance eerily similar to how she first activated her powers, Max chucked the hammer at Nathan’s head.

He collapses to the ground; Max wonders if it was the hammer or him hitting his head that knocked Nathan out.

Chloe promptly screams, causing Max to jump. She hadn’t even realized her former-current best friend had arrived.

It also wakes Max up to how crazy of a idea that was.

Pulling an alarm triggered a giant storm.

She doesn’t even want to known what hurling an object at someone’s head will do.

Rewind.

Max frantically pulls her phone out, and types out a text to a number she memorized so long ago.

_Plz, dont go into the bathroom, Chloe_

Her device beeped a few seconds later.

_Who’s dis?_

Then another text.

_Nvm, Im busy_

Max forgot that she had changed her phone number before returning to Arcadia Bay.

“Who’s there?”

Nathan’s voice asks.

He must have heard her phone.

Damn.

No point in staying now.

“Come ou-“

Nathan never finishes, as reality starts flowing backwards.

Max is alone again.

Just like always.

Why is she even trying?

This is a problem that has no solution.

Well, it has one.

She refuses to accept it though.

Chloe’s rushed pleading snaps Max out of her thoughts.

Somehow, almost the whole situation had already played out.

Max sighs, then thrusts her hand out.

Nothing happens.

Nothing but the roaring headache that had appeared out of nowhere.

Her mouth tastes like copper, and Max doesn’t process that it’s because the blood from her nose is leaking onto her lips.

A gunshot rings out.

No.

No.

She has to go back.

But she can’t.

Every attempt makes the pain worse.

Max keeps trying anyways.

Eventually, she can’t anymore, and that’s when she starts crying

**Author's Note:**

> _Another day is gone, washed away with sorrows that you dwelled upon._


End file.
